Adrian Heath’s thoughts on FBI investigation into FIFA corruption

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Bryce Brimhall / Valencia Voice

Orlando City manager Adrian Heath played 20 season in England before becoming a player-manager during his final year with Burnley.

News swept across the United States early Wednesday morning of an FBI investigation into corruption within FIFA which included the indictment of at least nine officials within the organization.

Orlando City manager Adrian Heath — who played 20 season in England — fielded a few questions from the media regarding the manner after training on Wednesday.

Thoughts on investigation into corruption within FIFA early Wednesday morning.

“Something that’s been going on for as long as I can remember being in football, the corruption of competitions being awarded to certain places and everybody knew the reasons why but people couldn’t get to the bottom of it or didn’t want to get to the bottom of it. Hopefully we’ll rid out the evil and common sense for the good of the game will prevail.”

“I think that Blatter actually has done some good things, but in general I think some of the times everybody has known that competitions have been awarded for probably not the right reasons.”

Is it a “black eye” for soccer?

“I don’t think it’s a black eye, I’d like to think of it as a beginning I think that we have an opportunity now to get the slate clean, (get) rid of the corrupt people and then start again, and then everybody will know if you take bribes or you are corrupt then you’re going to get called out. As I said before let countries who bid for the World Cup or whatever competition it is win it on the merits of their bid not how much they give.”

Thoughts on if football federations such as Germany or England should speak out against the corruption.

“It’s been very difficult with the repercussions of if they were to challenge this and the amount of money for all them countries, even though they’re washed with money in Europe, they want to play in the European competitions and I think they’ve all been afraid of what the repercussions could be if they spoke out. I’m from England and I’ve known the BBC had been doing documentaries on this for the last ten years, it’s just that it’s come out today. So hopefully we can rid ourselves of the bent and corrupt people and start fresh and get some proper people in there.”